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You hear it all the time from the government, religious leaders, and even your own mothers. Those awful video games are bad for your health. Just go outside! But is that really the truth of the matter, or are games just getting a bad wrap from the media wanting to sensationalize anything juicy?

So what's the lowdown? Are we all just going to end up in the mental institution due to video game induced insanity? Hardly. There is more than enough good press about the benefits of video games. The only problem? Good news isn't as striking as bad news. Let's take a look at what video games can do for you, and also a few ways to prove mother dearest wrong.

Myth #1 - Playing video games all the time will affect your eyesight.

It does - but in a good way. In a series of tests funded by the US Government's National Institute of Health, researchers found out that gamers actually ended up performing much better on tests designed to track visual aptitude and awareness. An interesting aside to this study - games that force you to process many things at once (They used Call of Duty vs Tetris in this study) allowed for a dramatic improvement in the previous tests. So action games seem to come out on top of puzzle games as far as visual improvement goes.

Another study conducted by the University of Rochester also conducted a study which confirm these findings. They also conclude that some of the games that the media are most likely to go after, the ones with violent overtones and action, are the ones that help the most. That's one heck of a devil's advocate right there.

Myth #2 Playing Games Leads to Obesity

There are a number of extremely active games that focus on getting players to move around and exercise - the most prominent of those being Dance Dance Revolution. There are a ton of peripherals that are made for this purpose as well. If you're a parent and you're looking for an easy way to get your kid off the couch and into action, you really should consider looking into some of these options.

Myth #3 Violent Games Make Violent Kids

An oft noted, albeit unconfirmed parallel actually says the opposite - when games became exceeding popular among kids, violence for that age range dropped. Coincidence? Maybe not. Let's think about it. If you're frustrated or feeling violent, you can channel and resolve some of those feelings through playing games. You don't have the opportunity to seek out someone during the violent emotional period. After killing a few bosses, you're feeling better.

On the other hand, the argument could be made that if they were having problems with the game, perhaps that would make the violent mood worse. Sure, I'll be fair and say that is an entirely possible situation as well. However, they could become more anger by nearly anything that they think slighted them - the cat, the TV, the house. The difference between games and everything else is that it provides an avenue to sooth the anger.

Myth #4 Games Just Cause Problems, Not Solve Them

There are also examples of video games as therapy. Attention deficit disorder (ADD) is exhibited by up to 7% of the nation's children. But video games can actually help them concentrate on an activity and teach them how to apply that concentration to other areas of their lives. It isn't intrusive and it's something many kids love to do anyway, so using these games to treat their disorder is a match made in heaven.